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Today, American Hat Makers threw a party to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos! We had a blast showing off our festivity and eating some delicious pan dulce with everyone. We had a costume contest so everyone could vote on who they thought was the most festive, and even played some fun games! On top of everything, we set up an altar to honor those who have passed on. Overall it was a great day of fun and bonding between all of our team members. Here are some pictures!

We at American Hat Makers always have such a great time around this time of year! Seeing everyone’s attitude flow in their Halloween costumes is so inspiring, and drives us to create the most unique and eye catching styles possible! One of our talented designers, Ruby Roxanne, lives for Halloween. Every year, she goes all out for her costume, and this year she designed a couple all-new couture hats to flaunt at her Halloween party! The first of which is a wickedly sassy interpretation of a witches hat!

This one-of-a-kind stunner is the tallest hat we’ve ever made! Standing at a staggering 2.5 feet tall, this hat is a guaranteed eye-catcher. This hat was designed to give off a wickedly glamorous witch vibe, and features leather lace around the crown, a laser engraved moon decorated with swarovski crystals, pink ombre hair draped around the crown, and is finally topped off with a sassy bird that stares into your soul with aurora borealis eyes. This isn’t the only hat Ruby designed this Halloween…

Behold the Dia De Los Muertos couture hat! This style is made with an extra wide felt brim, and a leather crown and top. Ruby says that the movie “The Book of Life” inspired this hat. In the movie, the goddess La Muerte wears this style of hat, and Ruby couldn’t resist replicating it for Halloween!

Ruby isn’t the only one who likes to express creativity around Halloween. Garth and Hannah rocked the Pirate and truly looked like a pair of salty sea dogs! Gary the dastardly desperado was no match for Garth’s sword skills!

At American Hat Makers, we love to create some of the most unique and eye catching styles in the world, so we can give people an outlet to show off their true selves!

One stylishly creepy design perfect for Halloween would be the Escape! Designed by Adam Rose of Fallen Owl Tattoo, this terrifying hat features monstrous teeth bursting from the hatband, and is topped with an airbrushed and laser engraved anatomical zombie brain on top of the hat. This style is only available for a limited time, so get yours today!

Halloween is a time when people’s creativity comes out in full force, and seeing all of the amazing ways that our hats are worn as part of costumes is always so fulfilling. Here are some awesome examples of some ways that our hats can enhance your costumes!

We hope everyone has an awesome and safe Halloween, and don’t forget to share all of your crazy costumes with us on social media! We love to see all the ways you express yourself.

One of our amazing team members, Ana, is expecting a new addition to the family next month. Everyone at American Hat Makers is excitedly awaiting the arrival of the newborn, so we decided to show our love for Ana and throw her a baby shower! We always take the opportunity to show our appreciation and support of all of our team members, and were grateful to be able throw an awesome party in celebration of Ana. All in all, it was an awesome day spent celebrating our beloved team member and this new chapter in her life. Here are some pictures we took at the party!

Ruby Roxanne, the fabulous creative mind who has imagined some of our amazing hat styles recently partnered with Bryan Vaughn for the Vaughnberry “Silent Echos” Fashion show, a part of Fashion Week San Diego. Ruby was asked to help design some top hats to “top off” the outfits that Bryan was showcasing, and happily took him up on the chance to be involved with such a stunning display of wearable art. Having met in San Diego a while back, Ruby was always appreciative of how dedicated Bryan was to his craft. Never missing a chance to stay up working through the early hours of the morning, Bryan always gave his all. Bryan graduated from the Art Institute of San Diego, and quickly directed his efforts towards designing men’s fashion. A unique aspect of all of Bryan’s designs is that although many of them are designated as men’s fashion, they have the ability to be worn by anyone who dares to be beautiful. This particular collection, “Silent Echos” is Bryan’s Spring/Summer 2018 fashion endeavor. The inspiration for this collection came from a photograph that Bryan took, featuring silent, snowy trees in the dead of winter.

The inspiration for the “Silent Echos” collection.

Ruby designed 5 stylish couture hats for this show. Each hat was meant to complement and accent the outfit, rather than acting as the center of attention.

First, Ruby designed an understated, subtle, yet striking version of our Stove Piper. This hat is simply one of our collar bands on a Stove Piper, both of which can be ordered through our website.

Next, Ruby designed a hat band made of silver, snowy branches to adorn one of our Toppers, and to complement the winter theme of the show.

Ruby designed this fascinator with a white ostrich feather burst, with a center of black ostrich feathers to contrast the piece. This fascinator is finished off with a snowy branch in the middle, adorned with a white snowbird. Paired with a handmade Vaughnberry dress made of ostrich and duck feathers, this outfit was truly a showstopper. Ruby is working on adding fascinators into our line of couture hats, so stay tuned for more info!

Fashion Designer Bryan Vaughn wearing the “Silent Echos” top hat.

Next we have the Vaughnberry “Silent Echos” top hat. Ruby laser engraved the show’s eponymous photo into a gunsmoke ultra suede leather Stove Piper, showcasing every inch of the photo in extreme detail. Finally, the image is framed within a leather embellishment.

This hat, named the Black Raven, is a Stove Piper adorned with black ostrich feathers, black diamond crystals, and a double satin ribbon around the crown.

All in all, the fashion show was a gorgeous expose of the intricacies of style and Bryan Vaughn’s talent. The Vaughnberry website is now taking orders so go show your support of an amazing designer and find a style that is guaranteed to draw eyes. Below are the rest of the photos from the show, which were all taken by 656 Photography and H photography. If you want to stay connected to more of these events in the future check out Ruby Roxanne and Vaughnberry on social media!

The title of American Hero is not thrown around lightly here at American Hat Makers. It is reserved for those who act selflessly to improve the world around them under any circumstance. The title of American Hero belongs to those who have a vision for what they can do to help others around them, tirelessly working to do their absolute best to provide for those in need. Melissa and Paul Getter exceed this criteria.

Paul is a pastor at New Life church in Naples, Florida, and partnered with Melissa they perform great work, endlessly carrying a message of love and support to the community around them. Based in Florida, they were in the direct path of the devastating Hurricane Irma, which wreaked utter havoc around them. However, weeks before Hurricane Irma made landfall, another devastating storm, Hurricane Harvey, was putting Texas through the wringer.

Aware of the need for humanitarian outreach during such a hectic time, Paul and Melissa started collecting donations in support of helping Texas. Having access to a warehouse chock-full of basic supplies, they were able to send no less than 8 truckloads of supplies to support Texas.

When asked about the reason behind their selfless acts they elaborated that they live their lives with a “servant’s heart”. They say that when they have the ability and resources to help, they are obligated to step up to the plate and do their part. They say that anytime they can be of help, it’s an ultimately gratifying feeling being able to pass on kind actions, in order to start the cycle of good deeds in their community. Several weeks after doing this outreach, the gravity of the situation about to effect them reared it’s ugly head. Hurricane Irma, the most devastating Atlantic hurricane in the last 10 years, was about to make landfall in Florida. Evacuation orders were issued across the state, and a state of emergency was declared.

Now they were the ones in need of support. Paul and Melissa were fortunate enough to have a house that was up to the code of withstanding a hurricane, however many of the members of their church were in dangerous flooding area, or had wood frame homes which were no match for a storm of this magnitude. Rather than direct their focus solely on themselves in this dangerous time, Paul and Melissa opened their home to those in need of shelter, and ended up protecting 25 members of their community within their home. I asked them what worried them most during this time, and setting aside their own needs, Paul and Melissa were most worried and focused on the safety of those they were providing for, and the task of getting all of their needs met. Melissa said she felt like a mama bear during this time, fiercely protecting those around her. After the intensity of the storm subsided and they were able to get their bearings, the work started to remedy the destruction around them. The organizations they partnered with in order to help Texas provided supplies right back and helped the Getter’s get their feet back on the ground.

It took quite a bit of time until relative normalcy was restored in the community, and due to the fact that cell service and landlines were down, communication was almost non-existent. The Getter’s were fortunate enough to have power restored to their home relatively quickly, while many of those around them had to endure the near 100 degree weather with no power, or very little power from gas generators. Once again they opened their home to anyone in need. After getting a foothold back in the community, word came in of the absolute devastation many Caribbean islands were experiencing. Never missing a chance to do their part, the Getter’s set out to see what they could do to help support those affected greatest by the hurricane. They once again had a warehouse full of supplies, but the task of getting them out of Florida and into the hands of those who needed it in Puerto Rico was daunting. Paul and Melissa started brainstorming of the possibilities and finally turned to social media to search for any way that they could undertake their mission. A group of individuals with the same idea of helping Puerto Rico was formed on FaceBook, and Paul connected with someone who told him that he had 8 private jets flying to and from Puerto Rico each day, shuttling refugees away from the areas most affected. They said that if Paul could get the supplies to the airport, they would gladly take them on board and over to Puerto Rico. At first, Paul had absolutely no idea where the airport was, and assumed that getting the supplies there would be a huge task on it’s own. After conversing further about the possibility of flying the supplies over to Puerto Rico, it was revealed that the airport was only about 3 miles away from Paul’s warehouse. Immediately the Getter’s jumped into action and transported their warehouse full of supplies over to the airport where they were then flown to Puerto Rico to those in need.

The Getter’s are a family of individuals who would never miss an opportunity to lend a hand to those in need. Who knows just how many individuals their selfless actions positively impacted during this time? If you learn one thing from the Getter’s it’s that any action taken to help another, will be returned to you tenfold.

We recently had an absolutely fantastic photo shoot with the wonderfully talented models Alexandra Vino and Cemi Guzman! The amazing designer Ruby Roxanne met up with them in L.A at a beautiful residence, and took it from there. Ruby’s eye for fashion and the technique of a master photographer, paired up with Alexandra and Cemi’s photogenic attitude made this photo shoot a real success. We had an absolute blast, and the photos we received were gorgeous! If anyone was meant to model our hats, it was them!

We just got back from the ESPY’s and we had a total blast! For those that don’t know, the ESPY’s are awards currently presented by the American Broadcast Television network ABC, and previously ESPN, to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performances. We met so many amazing, talented and fun individuals! Every GBK event is always so fulfilling, we absolutely love sharing our passion of making hats with everyone we come across! Here’s some pictures from while we were there!

Adam Schefter

Andre Berto

Anna Gasser

Brandon Marshall

Braxton Miller

Britney Young

Carmelita Jeter

Derrick Johnson

Ej Tackett

Jake Miller

Jorge Blanco

Kenny Britt

Lance Kendricks

Lester Speight

Malik Jackson

Marissa Chykirda

Matt Leinhart

Nick Ferguson

Oksana Masters

Omar Bolden

Randall Telfer

Roger Cross

Ronnie Hillman

Russ Weakland

Seth Curry

Stephen Glickman

Su’a Cavens

Sydelle Noel

Tony Hawk

Tony Jefferson

Treach

Walter Thurmond

Stay tuned for more awesome events like this one, and check out our website to find all the beautiful hat styles you see here!